Monday, January 23, 2012

Back to the Sizz

Say what you want about the Sizz, knock on it all you feel like (Hubs, I'm talking to you!), but that place is like heaven to me and I'll never change my mind, so don't even try to convince me otherwise!

My friend, Akasha, is visiting from out of town, and because we both worked at Sizzler many moons ago, we decided it was mandatory that we make a Sizz visit while she was here. We were treated like kings by old friends, ate half our food for free, and enjoyed every second of chowing down on that grisly, over cooked steak.

We even had some fantastic dinner entertainment. We were priviliged to watch this going on throughout the entirety of our meal.

That, my friends, is a woman giving her boyfriend/husband/lover a neck and back massage. Right smack in the middle of dinner. Right smack in the middle of Sizzler.

I'll tell you something about Sizz. It never ceases to surprise you.

What surprised me most, however, about our return to Sizzler was not the erotic dinner rub down. No, what really shocked me was how much I... well... missed...Sizzler.

And then I got nostalgic. Like... super nostalgic. I remembered all the nights at Sizzler, the crazy games we'd play in the back, the countless tables that I served, the friends I made, the late hours, the busy weekends, the endless shifts. And I wanted it back. I wanted to return to what once was. For one crazy minute, I missed that going-to-school-and-working-nights-at-a-restaurant stage of my life. I missed it so much. (You can read more about my glamorous life working at Sizzler here and here.)

Here's the truth. I have trouble leaving stages in my life. It's hard for me to move on. I attach myself too much to people, to places, to experiences. When I first got to college I cried and cried because I wasn't ready to leave Price yet. I had dreamt of geting out of that little town for years, and now that I was finally gone, I wanted that stage back. When I came home from my mission, I yearned for my investigators, my areas, my time in Argentina. I couldn't adjust to normal life, I wanted to go back to my mission stage. Maybe that's why I took a little longer to get married than most... I just wanted to hold on to the single stage of life that I was in.

AND...maybe, just maybe, it explains why I'm not chomping at the bit to have a baby just yet. I like the stage of life I'm in with Hubs right now. The married-with-no-children-do-whatever-we-want stage.

I realized, while sitting there admist deep fried shrimp and strawberry lemonade, that all stages must come to an end. My single-student-Sizzler stage ended two years ago, and even though I miss it, it's good that it's over. And now I have entered a new stage. A married-working-stable stage.

I made a goal to myself on Friday night, while eating all you can eat soft serve ice cream and watching that strange man get a massage. To enjoy each stage of life, and to love the stage that I am in. No yearning for previous stages, no longing for upcoming stages, just loving where I'm at. Because everything passes too quickly and things that happened to me five years ago seem like just yesterday, and before I know it all my children will be grown. I'm 25, but I feel like I'm still 13, and tomorrow I'll be 50. Everything changes so fast, and before you even realize what has happened, a whole section of your life is over.

And it really is true what they say, about one door closing and another one opening. With every exiting stage of my life comes a new stage, prancing on, ready to be explored and discovered and enjoyed. And there is beauty in every stage in life. There is really no reason to mourn because there is always new beauty in life, something more to enjoy, something more to learn from, something more to love.

And that's what I discovered on Friday night while making a return to a ghetto steak house where I spent several years waiting tables and rolling silverware.

Wow. Seriously?? A rub-down in the middle of a food eatery? I would have seriously choked on that food I think. People these days...sheesh.

I totally get that whole time passing nostalgia thing. You pegged me to a tee there. I have such a hard time with leaving the past in the past and not yearning for those things that were. Life is about growing and changing. I am learning that I can't live in the past and that I must keep looking forward if I want to fulfill all that I know I should be doing. It's hard though. But sometimes a little glimpse into yesteryears is not a bad thing at all. I'm glad you are content with where you are at right now. That is what matters.